Mass Effect: Reforged
by Johan the Duck
Summary: Alex Shepard, the first human Spectre is sent out after a dead Spectre and to neatrulize a Geth threat. He travels around the galaxy and meets new characters. Soon he learns about a much bigger threat, one that can end the whole galactic civilization. Can he save the galaxy? An alternate plot of first game. This fic feature a Shepard with unique background and an altered universe.
1. 1 - Voices

The voices echoed in his mind. Voices he did not recognize. They could not be his own, neither thoughts nor voices. They existed without his effort, as if they were placed there. He could, however not remember anything that suggested the origins of these voices. He could not remember anything, nor remember who, or what he was.

Who was he?

He could perceive glimpses of what could be rememberences. But were they his own? He could not know. They were distant, blurry and brief and he could not comprehend their content. But he felt some kind of correlation to these shards of memories, like some kind of limb which he had lost the link to.

He could not focus them. He wanted to, but he could not. The voices were too loud and too plenty. They attracted his attention from the memory shards. These were not coherent either. They spoke of different matters, they spoke in different languages, they spoke in different tones and all spoke at once. Each tried to howl down the other – desperately trying to earn the attention of him who could not retain his own identity.

They shouted, they shouted, they shouted. Why would they not stop shouting? What did they want? He just wanted control, control over his own mind, knowing who he was. He just wanted the voices to go away; cut them loose like an aching limb.

They did not want to go away. They kept adding to the chaos and the shouting became louder and more plenty. The images of remembrance kept fading away but remained as he would not let go of them. He wanted to see them, to know who he was, but the voices kept pledging for his attention.

He wanted the chaos to end. He was exhausted and badly wanted the chaos to end. He wanted the struggle to end. He let go of the remembrance and they was lost in the tumult of his mind. _Go away! Just let me die!_

The voices were muted. They decreased as one after one was muted and soon all was quiet. The remembrance was left, but it was yet far away, distinct. The memories themselves were incoherent and he could not comprehend them. Who was he?

Who he was had no longer importance. Who he was would only remain as a vague memory, like a scar.

A voice remained in his mind. Not a chaos of voices, but one solid. It was calm, as if it knew that it had monopoly in his mind.

Life was chaos and chaos was diversity. Diversity was a struggle. These voices, all these images of him, all the roles and ideals he was, all could not be. Only one could. One would bring order to the chaos. One would eliminate the others and the strong would remain. They could not exist together, not apart, not in the same space.

The remembrance told of a turian named Saren Arterius, known in his life as his role as a Specter, a role as bidder for a council of a cooperation made out of several civilizations. But this was no longer of essential meaning. What he used to be was not what he was, nor what he was going to be. His new role, his new meaning was independent from his previous existence. For one to exist, one other would not.

During his new role, he would be called by his old name by those who remembered him by what he used to be and he would respond, but not as Saren for he was no longer him. Who he was now did not matter, only his purpose.

He would be given the tools to fulfill his purpose, his destiny. Freedom was a lie to all beings. He would be a servant just like he was in the life before he was reborn, before his new call. He would be given sight to see the path to his fulfillment. He would be given legs to journey towards fulfillment. He would be senses to detect obstacles and arms to bypass these.

The solitude in his mind cleared and he was given control over a body made out of flesh and metal to play his role. Senses came over him; pain and discomfort, but this was welcoming. He was alive and would be able to strive toward his purpose. He had a purpose. The chaos was gone and one voice remained.

He had to fulfill his purpose.

With a long clutched jaw, he muttered "the cycle must continue".


	2. 2 - Late night visit

2

Late night visit

The doorbell rang through the apartment via the speakers and broke the idle state of it. It replaced the snores of the place's only living soul and the muffled stir from the orbit city outside. The door terminal lightened up the hallway and living room. The idle mood of the apartment was changing.

The snoring soul, David entered a state between sleep and wake as the noise reached his ears. Images from his dream were attached to his mind, images of his childhood back on Earth, of his mother. But these were soon fading away and he came to find himself laying on his bed in a darker were only flickering light from the city outside of the window scattered through. The doorbell had ranged and David forced his yet exhausted body in a sitting position on the side of the bed. He was forcing himself to resist the temptation to fall back on the madras and continue the sleep. The digital clock on the wall indicated that the clock was 02:35. Who the hell had the courtesy to wake him up that time of the night?

The doorbell rang again.

"I'm coming!" he shouted out in the corridor, not knowing nor caring whether the person at the door heard it or not. What he really wanted, however was to tell him to fuck off, but even in an annoyed and tiered state he had some courtesy.

He groaned as he felt the pain in the knees when he heaved himself up on feet. The rheumatism reminded him every day of his age and made him miss the youth when he could move freely. When the pain in the knees ceased, he picked up his morning robe that hanged on a chair close to the bedroom door, put it on and entered the hallway.

The idleness in the corridor was disrupted by David's footsteps when he walked toward the apartment door. He did not switch on the lightening since the light through the windows was enough for him to navigate.

He approached the terminal next to the door in the hallway. He touched the command to view the corridor outside the door. They'd better have a god reason, David thought for himself. The image expanded on the screen and he saw two men, one bigger that was a bit stout and one slightly smaller, each with a dress suit.

"Captain Anderson?" the taller asked and looked up toward the camera.

He was not sure what to make about the situation. The men looked somehow familiar, but he could not remember how. Guessing by their dress up, they were either government or corporate people. What made him worry were the stories he had heard about people being dragged away from their homes at night, often for not supporting a faction. A military leader could disappear over one night for not vouching for a higher power and replaced by a "better suited" man the next day, but he was not a high ranking officer.

"That's me" he replied shortly.

"Captain Anderson, we are sorry to trouble you, this time of the night, but we are here in affairs of the Alliance of Men and we would like to talk with you".

David now remembered them, at least one of them. The bigger one was the recently posted general secretary of the Alliance, Boris Yakovlev.

Perhaps leaving them waiting at the door would be rude, and David wondered what a high ranking person like Yakovlev was doing at his doorstep this time of the night. Therefore, without question the visitors business, he activated the doors opening command.

The two suited men entered as the door slide aside with a hissing sound. Yakovlev reached out his hand toward David.

"Boris Yakovlev, general secretary of the Alliance." David grabbed his hand and shook it. "I'm here with chief of foreign relations, Zefirino Santiago."

"Yeah, I know about you." David switched to shake Santiago's hand. "I don't know what what you are doing here at this time, though."

"No doubt you are. Let us explain it over a cup of coffee, if you will?"

"Yeah, sure, just take a seat and I'll make coffee." David pointed with his hand toward the living room.

The two men nodded and went there with their briefcases while David went into a dark kitchen that lightened up by his presence.

* * *

David's apartment, 1686 98f 24:30, was not the ordinary kind of living. There was not more furniture than needed and was lacking in decoration. The walls had no paintings or pictures. The furniture was the same that included when the living were given to him and was in the same state with no external decoration. The apartment was sterile, but it was enough for David the few times he was there. To say that he _lived_ there was not much more truth than the fact that he was registered there. He lived mostly on the ships he was serving on. He did not like the thought of living away from the duty and job he loved and the people that he knew.

The apartment was mainly used as storage for the limited amount of things he owned and had gathered over the years. These were inessential things such as old clothing, books, decorations given to him as birthday gifts and other rubbish. The only things of value in there was the medals he had earn with his commendations, picture of the people he had served with and some other things that reminded him of his career in the Alliance fleet. Where ever he lived after the point when he was too old to serve, he would bring up these things and put them where they would remind him of good times, but for now they were stuffed down in boxes with the other stuff, stacked in the guest room.

Sometimes he actually lived in this apartment, but only temporary when he was in Cosmos and needed a place to live at. He would call some local cleaning company to come there before his visit and get rid of the worst of the dust that had gathered when he was not around.

When he had cooked the coffee and dressed up in something more appropriate that his morning robe, he joined his unexpected guests in the living room where they had prepared tablets and papers on the couch table.

"Perhaps you have wonders about this sudden visit of ours? As I said, we are here in affairs of the Alliance that is rather secret .We have come this time of the evening so that what we say don't reach the wrong ears." Yakovlev sat I the couch and he looked in a sitting position more… well, fat.

David noted that the general secretary had done the talking thus far while his colleague remained silent, but he still had the look that he knew that he belonged there.

"We are expecting another before starting this meeting". David noticed the circular platform that had been place in the middle on the table. Santiago activated this and a small holographic picture of a man appeared.

"Captain Anderson, this is ambassador Udina of the Citadel embassy. He will participate in our talks."

"Captain" greeted Udina in a professional manner with a nod toward David. David responded with a nod.

"Captain, the reason we have come to you is that we want to talk to you about commander-lieutenant Alex Shepard" Santiago loaded a picture on a tablet and turned it toward David. It displayed the young commander.

What did they want with Alex?

"We understand that you know him well?"

David nodded. "Yeah, I know him. I've known him for twenty years, since he was no more than a child."

"Since Mindoir?"

"The only one who had not been killed or abducted. Has no memories of the whole thing, maybe for the best. I visited him regularly in his days as orphan here in Cosmos."

"Did you become a father figure for you?"

"I don't know if you could say that. The kid had no father and I never had kids on my own, so I guess we have some kind of relationship, but as a father figure? I don't know." He had always asked that question but never found an answer.

"Why are you asking this?" he asked. "What is it that you want with Shepard?"

Yakovlev put away his cup. "Of course, you deserve to know. This is not an interigation."

"The council of the Citadel has again granted our request to recommend a candidate for the next Spectre agent" said Udina. "We are considering selecting Shepard."

Memories came to the surface in David's mind, embarrassment, anger… hell, no good memories, that he tried to put behind him, but always seemed to catch up with him and bite him in the heels.

"Wait, are you want _Shepard_ a Spectre?" David pointed at the picture of Alex.

"We are _considering_, strongly considering actually. Shepard is the kind of man people would look up to. He is young, handsome and he has gained fame and respect through his actions at Terra Nova which also shows that he is capable."

"He is the ideal poster-boy" filled Santiago.

"Exactly, someone who can be a leading star for humanity."

Yakovlev poured new coffee in his emptied cup. "We have examined his physical and psychological profiles as well as spoken with his relatives. We have agreed that Shepard appears to be perfect for the Spectre program. But we would like your opinions of Shepard." He put his refilled cup on the table instead of drinking it.

Shepard was everything they had described. He had already during his childhood showed signs that he would accomplish great deeds. David had seen this the very moment he met Shepard, injured, traumatized but alive while no one else was. He had been through hell, just as a kid! And another time when he was just twenty, but he had survived and kept pushing through life despite what he had been through. David had no doubt that Shepard would get it done.

"I hope that we can trust our judgment" said Santiago while swinging a pen between his fingers. "Last time the Alliance had an opportunity like this things turned to the worst. Humanity lost all respect amongst the other races and became humiliated by her own media."

David prayed that the minister would not point out his past failures.

"That is why we cannot let anyone know about this until we deliver results" said Udina.

"Indeed, and to ensure Shepard enlistment as Spectre, I and my colleagues has decided to appoint mentors for to his aid. The first is ambassador Udina. He will mostly keep us updated on Shepard's progress. And we had hoped that you would accept to become his personal mentor due to your personal relations with him."

David leaned back in the armchair. "On part- or full-time?"

"Full-time. You will be spending your whole time with Shepard. You will be available at full-time in the Citadel alongside Udina. You will have all expenses covered and be given a fond when your services are used."

David bent forward clutched his hand while thinking. He had pasted his fifties and was getting close to his retirement from the Alliance fleet. Soon they would kick him of the Kyoto and put him in a training camp as instructor, or somewhere else he was not in the way. He would want to spend time with Shepard, helping him to succeed where David did not. He was however afraid of being idle in his new duty – he had never liked it and became marine for the very reason. He despised the thought of sitting around in the Presiduim, doing nothing. Even if he had promised himself to sit down one day to do, well, nothing, he felt that he was not done, not yet. But perhaps following Shepard would lead him to his last adventures?

Would his guests accept a no? – Probably not.

"I guess that means that I get resigned from Kyoto?"

"Yes, but you will not be without a ship." David looked up from the floor at Yakovlev. "There is a project under production, a frigate build on new technology developed by a joint team of both humans and turians. It is intended to serve Shepard when he becomes Spectre, but until then we will let you command it."

What did he really have to lose, other than a sterile, but safe retirement? He was not too old yet, but was not far from it, so one last adventure?

David nodded. "Okay"

_Authors notes:_

_Here it is; the second chapter. Now, in this message I just wanted to let you know that what you are reading here is the very first draft on this chapter and there is no further chapter that exists beyond my mind. So do bear in mind that there are flaws, both form- and content wise and there is more to come. I acknowledge this and recommend to not holding high expectations – after all, I am a mere green-ranger in the romantic literature._

_I will review my own work when all chapters are written and fix the flaws in a rework – if I find the motivation to do so! But I would love if you could spared a few minutes to review my work and point out my mistakes and perhaps some advises for the rework as well for future work. _

_I would appreciate it!_


	3. 3 - What's going on?

3

What's going on?

"The Arcturus relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence" said Flight lieutenant Moreau over the internal communication.

_The SSV Normandy broke through the darkness and idleness of the outer Solar system. A frigate made out of both human and turian hands; first and only of its kind. She was now ready for her intentions._

"We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination"

_She crossed the view of an endless universe, like a falling white star amongst all the others. She passed the orbit of Pluto. Her career had come to a beginning. A new footmark in the history was going to be made._

"The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector"

_But the stars were just gazing from their spot in the galaxy, not carrying for what was happening under their gaze. Men were born and men died. Families were created and families where ruined. Civilizations raised and civilizations fell; all under a constant change. Every change had a significant impact on the men of mankind. The stars did not care though. They kept gazing from their spot, like they always did._

"All stations secure for transit"

_The relay came in sight, the Archturus relay. The thing was like a star, gazing its own blue glow of dark energy in incredible amounts. Grand like a moon and fair like a star, the relays was the very heart of the galactic civilizations, removing the limitations of the home system and connecting the galaxy. These wonders had saved mankind._

"The board is green. Approach run has begun"

_SSV Normandy looked tiny as she lined up with the enormous metal body with its glowing core, stretched out away from Sol. The relay comprehended the small frigate on its side and Normandy where cloaked by the blue energy from the relays core and the relay suddenly glowed up along its body, glowing up as it charged up to send Normandy billions of light years out into the darkness of the galaxy, to other worlds._

"Hitting the relay in 3… 2… 1…"

_Away_

* * *

"Thrusters… check. Navigation… check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift… just under fifteen hundred k" flight-lieutenant Moreau said while checking the systems of Normandy. She was a new ship with only test runs in her history, but she had new technology with no earlier uses, but she seemed to drift perfectly fine at the moment.

"Fifteen is good. Your captain will be pleased" Nihlus said from behind Moreau's pilot chair with the turian, humming voice. He had per usual no traces of affection while he spoke; sounding neither impressed nor unimpressed.

He turned and started walking away from the cock-pit in the noose on the Normandy.

"Commander" he greeted shortly without stopping when he passed Alex Shepard that arrived to the cabin.

Joker, as Moreau preferred that people called him, looked backwards to ensure that the turian was without hearing range. "I hate that guy."

"Nihlus gave you a compliment… so you hate him?" lieutenant Alenko teased from Joker's right side.

"You remembered to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid" Alenko replied quickly. "The council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"Yeah, that's the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story."

Shepard stood behind Joker, overhearing the conversation. He agreed that Nihlus' presence was a bit odd.

"They don't send spectres to do petty tasks like inspect ships. The council would send a bureaucrat for that matter." But something else was strange about the turian: since a few days before pre-launch of SSV Normandy, Nihlus seemed to stalk Shepard, well… not stalk perhaps, but sometimes when Shepard turned, like when he was down in the hangar inspecting his equipment, Nihlus stood there and just observed Alex, that looked back a few seconds before Nihlus, without any words or affection turn and calmly walk away, as if nothing happened.

"Exactly! And we aren't doing charters to Eden Prime so there must something else that attracted him here. This can't be just a shake down."

"So what are you suggesting? Don't you think he's just here to please you with his company?" Kaiden teased.

"_OR_" Joker paused for a second as if he was trying to make up a clever riposte. Before he could deliver it, however, the computer received an incoming communication, from the captain.

"Moreau, is Shepard with you?"

"He's right here."

"Good. Tell him to meet me and Nihlus in the communications room."

"Roger that" Shepard replied.

"Nihlus is heading your way, sir" Joker said.

"He's already here, lieutenant" Anderson answered with a slightly annoyed tone and hung up.

Joker shook his head. "Captain's always pissed."

"Only when talking to you."

Something was off with David. Alex always saw him as a man that loved the people around him, especially those he served with. He had not seen him in over a year and this time he seemed to be stressed over something. He was rarely amongst the rest of the crew; was seen speaking with Nihlus time to time. He had greeted Alex in his usual friendly manor, but they had not spoken since then. He decided to see what was concerning David upon opportunity.

Alex walked inward the ship and left Joker and Alenko to their chat. He entered the command center, a round room with the big star map in the center, displaying the blue hologram of the galaxy. It was turning to evening (somewhere on Earth) and the day crew started to get replaced by the ones with night shift.

"Pressley" he greeted the navigator that greeted back without looking up from his pad while talking to Adam via intercom, about Nihlus it seemed. He was an elder, thin man with a bald planet. He was a man that preferred his work over people, with an exception for Adam in the engenering which he seemed to get along with; a hard man to deal with, but good at his duty nonetheless. He had "xenophobic" and "paranoid" labeled on his forehead and occasionally expressed his concerns about Nihlus' presence and alien involvement in the development of SSV Normandy.

"I grew up in Eden Prime, doc. It's not the kind of place Spectres visit. There's something Nihlus isn't telling us about the mission" said Corporal Jenkins whilst leaning with his shoulder to the wall.

"That's crazy. The captain's in charge here. He wouldn't take orders from a Spectre" Doctor Chakwas answered.

"Not his choice, Doc. Spectres don't answer to anyone. They can do whatever they want. Kill anyone who gets in their way."

"Ha! You watch too many spy films, Jenkins."

The elderly woman and boy came both from SSV Kyoto, like Alex himself.

Jenkins noticed Alex and straightened up and saluted. "What do you think Commander? We won't be staying on Eden Prime too long, will we? I'm itching for some real action!" he said with the enthusiasm of a boy who had not seen much of the world.

"I sincerely hope you're kidding, Corporal. Your 'real action' usually ends up with me patching up crew members in the infirmary." Jenkins was not unjustifiably equal to trouble back at Kyoto. He had potential in skills, but his enthusiasm could make him go outside his authority from time to time. He had caused no major problem, but Alex figured he would start to deal with it before it did. He had an appointment, but hopefully David wouldn't charge him for failure of duty.

"We do not look for 'action', Corporal. We fulfill our duty and that is to do what we are pointed at, nothing more" sounded good enough.

"Sorry commander. But this waiting is killing me. I've never been on a mission like this before. Not one with a Spectre on board!"

"Just treat this like every other assignment you've had, but without any stunts, and everything will work out."

"Easy for you to say. You proved at Terra Nova. Everybody knows what you can do" oh no… "This is my big chance. I need to show the brass what I can do!" Eight years had passed but the scenario still haunted him. He had get used to people talking ignorantly about Terra Nova, but he could not let Jenkins believe that anything that had happened there was of glory.

"The only thing that was proven there was how easy a life can be extinguished" Alex's over-all tone had dropped. He looked up at Jenkins. "A soldier that steps out of line out of foolishness do not only risk his own skin, but the life of all his comrades. Hopefully you will not have to learn it the hard way." He realized he had spent more time on Jenkins then he should have and left him the cold shoulder and left Jenkins questing. He had learned that a command must show a warm side, but also a cold one, even if he did not enjoyed the later.

He entered the communications room and expected David to ask where the hell he's been, but he only saw Nihlus standing in the middle of the room with his back turned to Shepard while facing an image of a country side at Eden Prime. Alex entered and Nihlus turned to face him as the door hissed shut behind him.

"Commander Shepard. I was hoping you would get here first. It will give us a chance to talk."

"Talk?"

Nihlus did not answer directly but moved to his subject. "I am interested in this world we are going to – Eden Prime. I have heard that it is quite beautiful."

"So I've heard" Alex replied simply. He had heard of people of power that analyzed their opponents for weaknesses and decided to give Nihlus little to work with.

"All those farmers there – working the fields to feed an overpopulated home world" Nihlus continued as if Shepard said nothing and faced the image. "Being in such a stray place with the Terminus close upon – they must be putting a lot of trust in your fleets, at least until they learn that you do not have resources to cover all your expansions. How safe is it really?"

What was he playing at? "Are you threatening me, Spectre?"

Nihlus faced him. He did not know turian expressions and could not make out Nihlus' new look. "Why would I do that? I am just giving you some advice. The colonists have chosen the Alliance as allies out of ignorance and will not find the help they expected when needed. What I am saying to you is that you should consider which ones you put your faith with."

Alex was about to ask why Nihlus was telling him this, when the hissing sound from the door came.

"Perhaps it is time we tell him?" Anderson asked from his back.

"What is going on here?" What had sounded like minor coincidences before now became absurd.

David took a breath. "This isn't a regular shake-down mission. Nihlus is here to evaluate you."

Nihlus came to Anderson's side of Shepard. "Yes, the Council of the Citadel has decided to accept your specie's request to let you run the Spectre evaluation."

What? "Me, as a Spectre?" He could not come up much more to say. It kind of came out of nowhere.

"Yes the first one of you specie, if you would pass."

"This would have a significant impact on our relation to the rest of the galaxy; showing that we have the ability to adapt to the community" David said.

Well… What could he say? "Wow… I fell… Intrigued." That was the first feeling he had about it; making something new, different and important.

David smiled, as if amused over Shepard's reaction.

"But why all this mysteries? The crew got on spot with Nihlus, but why are we going to Eden Prime. It ain't just a practice run, is it?"

"You are right commander" Nihlus confirmed. "The colonists have dug up a prothean artifact; a beacon most likely. It possesses a different nature than earlier findings and attempts to read it on site have failed and due to the colony's close distance to the Terminus System, the Council has decided to relocate artifact to a safer location."

"Your team will be deployed on Eden Prime in the morning, secure the beacon and bring it on board of Normandy" David said. "Here's the necessary intel." David handed him a pad, containing various information of the local settlements and some maps. "Are there any questions, Shepard?"

Still a bit baffled, Shepard simply shook his head. "No sir."

"Good" David said with a smile. He took a step toward Shepard and put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "Your shift is coming to an end, Alex. How about you grab some food and take some time to rest and process all of this, okay?"

Shepard returned a smile. "Yes sir."

Without exchanging more words, David pated Alex on the shoulder and sent him on his way. Nihlus remained indifferent about the exchange of gestures.

He felt excited. He had never come across the thought about becoming a Spectre, but something about it seemed right.

And it was really good to see David again.

* * *

The outskirts of A-C6 looked the same way like yesterday – the exactly same fucking way. The same dirt road, the same trees, the same structures in the distance, the same morning stars that where eradicated by the sun beyond the horizon, the same jeep and everything else that looked the same way since her arrival a few months ago.

She had fulfilled her garrison service and was meant to be transmitted to further services, but instead she had been sent here of all places in the world. They said that it was not regular garrison service since it was a newly established colony and that her services were needed there, but that was bullshit. She had been placed there since no ships had accepted her on board. They always had some vague excuse like that they had no room or shit like that. It was not her skills (never her skills) and not her sex nor dysfunction – it was her damn surname, Willems. The idiots in the high ranks actually still cared for the actions of her ancestor 66 years ago – idiots. They feared their own reputation for having a Willems under their command. Despite this obstacle, her father had become an officer of communications during his career; not higher than Ensign, but still. Ashley had followed the steps, even if the instructors during recruitment had been extra demanding. It had gone well considering, but now the career had stuck on this sterile planet in middle of nowhere.

She could not complain at her company though – far from it. She had managed the time at the colony with the company of her comrades. They did not care about her family – or rather say did not know, unlike some other dinosaurs. In the garrison of A-C6 they were family and together the days went by.

She was with three of her comrades on the morning patrol around the perimeter: Zheng Xue, Chan Lin and Yuda Susila. She was a girl amongst boys, from a family with no members to keep her away from "masculine" activities. But they treated and respected her as an equal despite her sex. Some jerks had been messing around with her in the beginning, but after putting those in their place they had humbly fell in under her command.

The road was lightened by the spot lights from the jeep and the increasingly lighter morning sky and the fields and plateaus were uncovered from darkness. The colonies in the distance were starting to wake up, once again tending their fields of crops. Nothing really happened during patrols, especially during morning shifts. The climax of excitement was either some wild animals that had entangled in the fences or a tree that had felled over the road. Sometimes they picked up the senile old Harshad that had been wandering of from his family.

"Chief, there is something up ahead" Lin interrupted.

Awoken from her day dreams, "What?"

"Over there" he pointed past her shoulder toward the distance ahead. Ashley moved a binocular to her eyes. Over there above a forest something hovered in the sky. It was far away and she could not see exactly what it was, but it was most likely some kind of air craft. She passed the binoculars to Lim.

"What do you think it is?" Xue wondered, slowing down the pace of the jeep. The craft left behind the tree lines.

Ashley had heard of reports from other colonies that Eden Prime was used by smugglers from both human and Terminus system as a drop point – one part would drop illegal goods somewhere at the colonies and local contacts (farmers looking for extra cash) would pick it up and send it to the next partner. Could this be one of them?

"Perhaps some action finally, eh?" Yuda said from the back seat.

The group agreed that the time of picking up old senile Harshad was over and the jeep set off toward the potential smugglers.

They reached the spot the craft had been sighted at. It was on a field just by the road that was covered by a mist. Ashley overlooked the space but saw no activity or anything that the craft could have dropped.

Perhaps it was the wrong place.

Or they did simply not drop anything.

They could not have missed the smugglers during the ten minutes.

Yuda expressed his disappointment loudly and sunk back in his seat.

Ashley closed out the guys and concentrated her eyes as she tried to peer through the mist that blocked the line of sight some hundred meters away. She knew that she _had_ seen something here. She saw only a field which was framed by forest on each side and disappeared under the mist – nothing more than that.

"What if it wasn't an unknown craft?"

"The command would have told us that."

"Command ain't telling shit!"

Wait… There was _something_ in there as the mist became slightly darker, but she saw no shape.

"Should we get back on patrol, Chief?" Xue asked.

"Hold on." She pointed out that she saw something on the field.

"I can't see anything." The guy's eyes were not as sharp as her. She commanded that they would have a closer look. They stepped out of the jeep and picked up the assault rifles from the trunk and walked out on the field.

The object was some hundred meters away and the guys also noticed it. As they got closer, using caution, a tall shape was formed.

They reached the point where they could make out that it had humanoid shape with arms and legs, when suddenly a blue projectile came from its direction in the blink of an eye. It reached Yuda and made him stagger. The others shot at the object (or being) by instinct and caused it to fall backwards with a strange electronic sound that died out.

"Jesus, are you all right?" Ashley rushed to Yuda.

"Yeah. It just bounced at the shield" he replied.

A moment of suspension followed. What the hell was that thing? It was made of metal and was now lying on its back with its feet pointing at the group. At its side was a smaller object; a gun perhaps? It was some type of mech, right? The kind that you deploy as security.

"Don't go near it!" Lim spat out as Ashley carefully walked over to the mech. She rarely cared much for safety measures and the thing was probably dead (if machines could _die_). She did not recognize this kind of mech. It was the kind that walked straight up with small arms – the strange looking gun at its side – but this looked bigger and kind of more biffed out with a big torso and arms, like someone well trained. It did not look human: it was a bit shorter, had a bullet filled chest with a tiny waist. Some kind of light blue liquid came out of the holes. I had no head but rather some kind of bent cylinder-looking top, pointing forward with no face, but a dark lens that Ashley briefly saw lightened before it died.

"What the hell is that thing?" the group stood around and looked down on the strange being.

More importantly was what it was and why it was hostile.

_Zap_

Before being able to think about these questions, another blue projectile flied through the sky right above Ashley's head.

"Get down!"

The moment they hit the grass a swarm of projectiles stormed over their heads. It was some kind of energy based weapon like plasma that made strange sounds as it burned through the air.

"They are in the woods!" Xuan shouted. The enemies were hidden in the forest on the edge of the field. They were heavily suppressed with no cover at all. They _had_ to get off the field the damn field, but they needed a window. There was no place for doubt and reason and Ashley's instincts took charge. Contrary to the protocol of colony defenses, she had installed a grenade lounger on her rifle which she used to dismount during inspections from command, but now it was there and had a grenade in it.

"Make ready to run!" she shouted to her frightened comrades. Despite the risk of being shot, she made a brief prayer to make her shot true before mounting herself up to a crutching position. She took no more than a second to aim through the lightening mist and send away the grenade in a bow toward the tree line. The grenade made a perfect impact and exploded behind the line and disturbed the enemies which caused them to cease fire. The explosion send a mech to be pushed out of the forest with an electronic death scream like the first one had.

"Run!" she yelled and they set off from the death zone toward the road. Wait, not Liam…

He remained with the stomach to the ground. The guy had freaked out.

"Fuck!" she growled and stopped. With no hesitation she rushed back to Liam. A few rounds from the forest came, but they had not regained the same rate of fire as before.

"Wait! What the fuck!" Yuda yelled in panicked confusion and desperation.

"Start the car" she yelled back and heaved up Liam that was alive, but heavily shocked and his body was slack like a ragdoll, but she managed to get him up on his feet. They were clear targets, but the forest was further away than the jeep otherwise they would have been punctured already.

"Come on, Liam!" she wailed. Liam's face was pale and the face indicated nothing but horror, but fortunately he started to run alongside Ashley. The mechs spat fire toward them and Ashley constantly mumbled prayers to get out of the other side. Xue had started the jeep and Yuda had positioned himself behind the jeep to provide covering fire for his fleeing comrades.

They reached the vehicle and Ashley opened the back door and pushed Liam to the seat. She jumped into the front seat. She yelled to Yuda to get in. The rounds swarmed around the jeep and some hit its side. Yuda was in some kind of absence and would just keep shooting, but he was disrupted when the magazine ran out and heard Ashley's and Xue's combined shout and jumped into his seat beside Liam.

The front window was scattered as a projectile hit it and Ashley and Xue covered their faces when the glass shattered over them.

"Hit it!" The jeep gave away a roar and set off on the road with shots after it.

"What the _fuck_ was that?!" Yuda bawled; Xue pushed the speed as much as he could; Liam was still in shock and Ashley tried to contact command. Was the whole colony under attack? She received static.

"Command, come in!" no frequencies worked. She tried to reach sector C command; colony command, the garrison, anyone, but there was only static.

"Fuck!" she spat and gave up. She ordered Xue to take them back to the garrison where the rest of the group was.

"Look!" Yuda pointed out over the edge of the ridge they passed where they had on overview of colony A. The sun had started to rise, but instead of the view of farmers heading out to the fields, the group was faced with fires and dozens of crafts in the sky, dropping objects and shooting at the settlements. Xeu slowed down and all of them watched in horror over the usually calm colony I flames. It felt surrealistic.

What the fuck was going on?

* * *

_Shepard!_

_You damn fool!_

_You are not taking the boy_

_Aleks!_

_You must get out of here!_

_Don't take my children! Alla!_

_AAAHH!_

_You disgusting human_

_Do not make a peep_

_He will kill us all, dammit!_

_Just follow the script and nothing else_

_Shepard!_

"Shepard!" He was shaken heavily with two hands on his shoulders where he laid. He came soon to realize that he lay in his sleep capsule that had been pulled out and lieutenant Alenko was standing over him with his thick eye brows and uncared black hair.

"Finally! You wouldn't wake up. Are you alright?" He must have noticed Alex's worried sleep and his sweating.

"I'm fine. It's… nothing; just bad dreams" he said with a tired voice. Kaiden backed off as Shepard sat up with his feet to the floor. His nigh mares were never cohesive, like a shattered puzzle. Pieces were flashing by and they contained nothing but misery, some which he remembered but others completely unfamiliar to him. He used to have them frequently; usually once per month and during periods he had depression he took calming drugs during sleep. He never remembered what he dreamt of when he woken up.

Kaiden, a usually sympathizing person would normally worry for someone in a condition like Alex's, but he did not do so now.

"Okay. Listen: you've got to get dressed. All commanding officers are to come to the com room." He tossed Alex his uniform which he caught to his chest.

With newly and unrested eyes he looked up at Kaiden. "What's going on?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but we have no contact with the colonies on Eden Prime."

They entered the com room where Anderson and Nihlus stood over the screen, communicating with Joker over the inter com. The screen showed a program, scanning for signals. Pressley stood further back where Alex and Kaiden entered.

"How's it coming?" Kaiden asked.

"The whole place is dead. The colonists usually have breakable technology and tend to black out sometimes, but all three of them?" Pressley replied.

"Captain, we need to head down to the surface. The artifact must not be caused by harm" Nihlus said.

"We don't know what's down there"

"And we will not find out by remaining here. The plan has not changed: we go in under discreetly, retrieve the artifact and leave – no matter what is going on down there."

"Wait" Joker interrupted. "The scanner picked up something."

"What is it?"

"A distress signal from the surface; a video."

"Bring it up on screen, lieutenant."

The computer launched the video program and then the video played. Instantly, sounds of shooting came out of the speakers and the image of a sky filled with flying projectiles filled the screen. The camera tilted down and viewed a group of around eight soldiers in the standard Alliance colony grey armor. They were in a firefight and had taken position behind a set of rocks. The camera tilted down further more and displayed the legs of a siting soldier – the camera was probably the one on a helmet – on his side was another soldier, nursing a wound on the cameraman's thigh where the armor had been cut up.

The soldier finished patching up the cameraman and showed a face of a female to him.

"_Stay here!_" she said and stood up with an assault rifle and took position at the rock with the camera following her.

The officers and Nihlus stood in front of the screen in disbelief. A day ago the colonies was perfectly normal and had contact with SSV Normandy. Now the place seemed to be under full attack. The system lay close to the Terminus system, but they would still have been able to send away a distress signal to every inch of Alliance space. The foe seemed to use plasma weapons, not the choice of the common bandit.

The projectiles kept swarming through the air and some hit the soldiers – one in the face.

A soldier came crashing down in front of the camera man, evading an explosion. He grunted as he pushed himself up with his elbows. He looked into the camera.

"_You have the camera running?_" he shouted to voice over the guns and the camera tilted up and down as if the owner nodded.

"_Good. This is garrison group C6. We are in a fucking mess right now_" the speaker was stressed and skipped formalities. "_They came out of nowhere! All communications are gone! We can't ho…"_ a close-by explosion interrupted him and shuffled dirt and rocks onto him and a little on the camera lens. "_...need evac! They are everywhere! We can't hold them-_"Blood spat out from the side of his head when a projectile silenced him. The life disappeared from the recently shocked eyes and he tipped over in front of the camera. The female soldier looked back and horror spread over her face when she saw the dead man. She looked at the cameraman, shocked. Before she could do anything, a roaring sound over-voiced everything else.

It was a strange sound that reminded of a vibrating heavy machine and was extremely loud and caused the speakers to spark. The officers blocked their ears under groaning.

The soldiers stopped shooting and looked up toward the sky behind the rocks, their faces in horror. The cameraman crawled to one of the rocks and peeked over it. At the distance, clouds were forming in the sky and flashed with sparks. It dropped down from the sky and soon a black object was revealed in the clouds and more deafening roaring came, but it was only visible briefly as blood sprayed around the camera – the cameraman had been shot! He dropped backwards with the camera viewing the sky.

"_Liam!_" a female voice screamed through the noise of shooting and explosion. Frame rate decreased and soon static overtook, leaving the officers in a strange feeling. You never really got used to see people die. What was going on down there? And what were that noise and the thing that came out of the sky? Shepard looked around him and the others seemed to be in as much disbelief as he.

"Is that the whole message?" David asked.

"That's all" Joker confirmed.

"Reverse to 2:55 and freeze." The video jumped and showed a still image of what had cought the attention of the soldiers. The image was… strange. From the dark clouds that surrounded it, a… hand? That was the only thing Shepard could relate it to, a hand. It was black and seemingly out of metal with five "fingers". It looked absurd and terrifying, like in that terror film where titans terrorized humanity and spread destruction. Was this real?

Nihlus moved his mandibles. The only thing he showed thus far that resembled an expression. He also seemed to be in disbelief.

"Captain" he said. "We must get down there. The situation has turned dire." He did not look at Anderson while saying that, staring at the image."

David nodded. "Joker, activate the stealth system and take us in, nice and slowly."

"Aye, captain."

David looked at the screen in concern.

"This mission just got a lot more complicated."


	4. 4 - Eden Prime

4

Eden Prime

Alex, Kaiden and Jenkins sat idle in the hangar bay, equipped and ready for drop-of. They were just waiting. This was not the first time Alex put his head in an unknown hole, but there was a slightly unsettling feeling creeping in his body, the kind you get when you know danger awaits. A human with a healthy mind would feel afraid going into the unknown danger, despite how bold they are told to be. It was a matter of handling these fears that vary. You could not train away a feeling, only train to get control over it. During his training he had been taught to always keep his cool under all circumstances and to not display your emotions. He put full focus on what had to be done by him: drop to the surface; locate and secure the artifact and bring it back to the ship.

He looked over to the other side of the hangar where the Mako was standing. It was a light, armored vehicle, able to create a light mass field around it. This alongside with some small rockets allowed it to be dropped mid-air with the ground team inside, but the surface around the excavation site in colony A was rough with forests and steep hills, making a mid-air drop dangerous, and forcing them to drop the team on foot.

Jenkins had his spirits high, eager to see the 'action' he longed for. The kid probably believed that they were going up against nothing more dangerous than a bandit raid, even if they told him otherwise. Shepard hoped that he would behave. Alenko seemed more content, he knew as well as Shepard what kind of situation awaited them.

The elevator arrived to the hangar and Anderson and Nihlus ascended out toward the team.

Finally

Alex stood up and saluted his captain. "Ground team is ready for drop-off."

Anderson returned the salute. "Good, Commander. At ease." Alex and his comrades turned into the pose. "We are within the planet's atmosphere and are moments away from surface. Are you and your team aware of your objectives?"

"Drop in, locate, secure and deliver. We'll land at point A and proceed ten kilometers to point B, secure the target and bring it back to A." Alex replied.

"Good." Kaiden raised his hand and Anderson permitted him to speak by nodding.

"What about civilians, sir?"

"Extracting the target is out prior objective, lieutenant. Support civilians and local forces should not lead to any reroutes or delays."

"I will be present during this operation, commander" Nihlus said. "I will scout ahead, ensuring the safety of the target."

"If it's true that communications are blocked there, you will not be able to connect with each other or with Normandy. We will return to pick you up at point A in four hours. Are there any questions?"

Shepard looked around him. His team seemed to be as ready as you could be. There were no questions.

The hangar doors opened, letting in daylight that lightened up the dark hangar. Land shapes passed by and the air whistled.

"The mission is yours now, commander, good luck!"

…

The Normandy took off, leaving the men and Nihlus on the surface. The landing zone was secured; no signs of hostility. There was overcast, preventing the sun to reach the surface, making all seem darker and adding to the impression that this was a dangerous place. The ground seemed to shift dramatically in height: the hills were divided on different levels separate by steep hills and they stood on the edge of such a level. The place was calm, but they heard sounds of battle echo.

Nihlus checked communication. "There is nothing but static" he confirmed.

"We should stick together" Alex suggested to Nihlus. "Since we don't know what we are up against."

"Negative, commander. This is your evaluation and should show potential without my presence. Thus, the artifact is within my duty and I must let that go before anything else" he answered and set of running. "Good luck. I will come to find you."

With the long legs of a turian, Nihlus was gone out of sight moments, and with no communication Alex had total responsibility.

"Should we get moving?" Kaiden asked and came to Shepard's left.

"The sooner the better. Corporal!" He turned to tell the corporal to get moving, expecting the soldier to be eager for duty, but he had his back turned to him, looking out over the edge of the cliff.

"Corporal?" Alex walked up alongside him, seeing what he saw, a colony afar in a valley. It looked like an enormous bonfire on the plain.

"Colony A" Jenkins said with a slow and tired voice, very unlike the one from the enthusiastic boy Shepard known. "My parents moved there when I was a kid – been with since the start. They live there." He pointed at the bonfire. He watched his home burn and while his voice was steady, Shepard could see the shock in his eyes.

"I'm sorry"

"They're not dead!" he forced out. "They are still alive." His voice became unstable and he started to blush. Shepard feared that he was going to break. They needed to get moving. "They must be."

"Look at me." He grabbed Jenkins shoulder and forced him to break eye contact and faced him to himself. "We'll the bastards who did this. Whoever they are or whatever, but right now we need to focus. We're soldiers. We follow orders, and our orders are to reach point Bravo, okay?"

Jenkins shrugged. "I don't know commander."

"We _have_ to." Jenkins faced the first real teaching in soldering, that it was not a game. "Stick by me and keep your eyes on my back only and listen to what I say, and we will be okay."

Jenkins nodded nervously, but he was somewhat calmer. "Okay."

Alex gave him one pat on the shoulder and let go of him. He walked away from there. Jenkins gave a last look at his burning home, but remembering Shepard's word he shrugged of the feeling of loss and ran after Shepard.

When Alex passed by Alenko, he was given a look that indicated impress, by how Shepard manage to handle people. People had said that Shepard had the ability to make people around him like and respect him. Kaiden saw a man he could respect.

They had already wasted enough time as it was and set off with Shepard in front with gun fires echoing against the hills.

…

"It's quiet" Alenko pointed out. They had seven kilometers left to point B, but all these cliffs and curving passages made it go much slower. "Not even any wild life."

"They're probably hiding" Jenkins said, more content now. "They hide during thunders in hill-side holes."

They kept on a bit longer.

"Listen, commander" Jenkins started. "I just want to say sorry for what I said earlier, on the Normandy, if I stepped on something sensitive."

"It's okay" Alex simply replied. He kept scanning the surroundings, not practicing small talk in dangerous zones.

Jenkins held a reply for a moment, not satisfied with the answer. "What happened at Terra Nova?" Shepard was about to tell him to stay focused, but Alenko did that for him.

"Hold". Shepard crutched down and held up a clutched fist, signaling to the others to do the same. The path turned right to a passage with the edge of the mountain on the left and a wall on the right. In the passage were several large rocks. They had encountered nothing thus far, but Alex's instincts warned that this was an ideal location for an ambush, unfortunate they had not the kind of censors they used in high class operations that could analyze a whole area. They had been quiet and hopefully not given away their presence, but one should always expect the worst. He explained how they were going to advance: they were going to cover each other's advance; one moved to next rock while the others behind him covered him. Jenkins volunteered to go first. Shepard approved.

Shepard expected the basic cover-advance movement to go like anytime else, like it always went, but he did not anticipate what would happen next.

Shepard approved Jenkins request to go first with by pointing toward the first set of rocks. Jenkins stood and set off toward it. Shepard and Alenko could not see to the end of the passage since the wall was curving and blocking their sight. Shepard now realized that they could not give a sufficient cover for Jenkins, but he had almost reached cover.

But suddenly came a projectile flying, too fast for the eye, and hit Jenkins. The kinetic barrier took the hit, but broke instantly and the force disrupted Jenkins balance, but he managed to recover quickly, standing straight. Shepard had no time to react before several projectiles came, hitting the unprotected Corporal. Most of them hit him in the torso while few in the limbs. Jenkins screamed and jerked as the fire penetrated his armor and flesh. It ended as quickly as it started when the fire ceased and Jenkins fell straight forward with a slack body that made no resistance to the fall.

"Jenkins!" Alex screamed, but Jenkins did not respond in anyway. His shock was quickly replaced with a fiery anger and rushed in to face the enemy with his rifle raised. Alenko did not respond as fast and was still in shock when his comrade launched away from him. Alex's senses worked quickly: at the end where the fire came from, there were flying objects, probably drones of a small form that looked like small plates with mounted guns. His killer instincts were activated and did not dwell or hesitate when he released burst of fire at them. It was a smaller swarm of these drones and first two fell for Shepard. When they returned fire, he had reached cover and the rounds hit the rock or flied past. While the drones concentrated on Alex, Alenko came and picked of one with his gun before pulling one with biotics and slammed it against the wall. Shepard stood up from cover when the drones were confused and took out the last two. They exploded in air and crashed in the ground. Kaiden sought to cover next to Shepard.

Adrenaline pumped through Shepard's veins and a moment of tense followed as the two men waited for more of these machines to show up. He came back to reality when he heard Kaiden, shouting for his attention and he shook of his tension and retreated back to Alenko. He was kneeling at Jenkins and had turned him facing upwards. Shepard's eyes widened when he saw the Corporal: large holes had torn on his torso and was burned from the plasma. This kind of weaponry was of high technology and could not belong to any factions Shepard knew of. It had penetrated both shields and armor like paper. Jenkins once enthusiastic face when he longed for adventure was not there, nor was the shocked face when he feared the lives of his family. The face that Jenkins had indicated… nothing.

"He stood no chance, commander" Kaiden said and closed Jenkins eyes, he marked the spot on the map Shepard had shared with him earlier so that they could locate the body to bury.

Shepard breathed heavily, but there was no air to bread. The blood pulse increased and white clouds appeared in Shepard's sight, and time disappeared. It was all happening again. He had promised Jenkins that they would get out on the other side, but now he laid dead. He had called the shots. What the fuck had he been thinking when he sent out a barely experienced man without cover; what the _fuck_? He had screwed up – that's right – screwed up and once again someone else was paying with their blood. The spirits of the dead haunted his mind; the lives that ceased because of him. _You fool!_ Tang said, once again. Jenkins had been looking up to the commander, expecting him to get the ones that destroyed his home, but now he was dead. He had just died.

Shepard could not breathe and started to loose foothold. The world around him decimated; was no longer Eden Prime. The eyes; the goddamn eyes that showed the life leaving a man was there, glazing at him. He had screwed up…

"Shepard!" Kaidens voice was heard and the thick clouds disarrayed, leaving him on Eden Prime with the lieutenant, holding his shoulders to prevent him from keeling over. "You okay?" He probably knew that everything was wrong by this state.

"Yeah, I'm just fine" Shepard replied, putting Kaiden's hands away from him. He lied once again, a lie he had made for everyone, including himself, for a long time. Pushing away Kaiden's hands would not be possible if he had not let go of Alex willingly, but he had a frown in his face, indicating concern. Shepard felt the blood returning to his veins, but still needed effort to keep the balance.

"You are _not _fine. Jenkins is dead and you are obviously sick, we need to pull out." Alenko had noticed something off with Shepard since the morning, but it had become a great concern.

"No, we mustn't. The plan has not changed: we get the artifact; we get Nihlus _then_ get the hell out of here. Besides, communication's out. We are not going anywhere."

Kaiden looked over the situation. He would not convince his commander to stand down and he was right; the task was the only thing they had. He was slightly relieved to see Alex recovering when the color returned to his face. He nodded in agreement.

Shepard looked over to Jenkins with the large wounds on the torso, feeling heavy in the chest. They had to move on. "You marked him?"

Kaiden nodded.

Shepard stared at the corpse a bit longer. He looked for an answer, but what was the question? No, they had to continue.

"Let's go." They left Jenkins's body without looking back, following the track. Shepard remembered the promises he had given to Jenkins. He had screwed up on the second one, but he intended on keeping the first.

He was gonna find the bastards responsible for this.

…

Liam, Xue, Yuda –fuck – _everyone_ was dead. Every-fucking-one! They were eight, but within twenty minutes they were gone! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Were they gone? Really gone?

They had reached barracks for C6 and found their comrades in as much confusion as they were, but they were okay. After consulting with everyone, Ashley decided that they would head out and try to reach the main colony and join up with their defenses, but their convoy of two jeeps hit an end when the engine on the first jeep was taken out by those robots on their way down the mountain. They were quickly pinned down and one after one fell. They tried to send a distress signal, but god knows if that would help. They died like flies, with a single strike each. That… thing. That horrible thing came and the noise, it almost busted her ears. When only she and Yuda remained, he told her to run, just run. She could not object or reply before he rushed out, shooting all around him, but was instantly molded down. Ashley then felt nothing, like her brain was disconnected, but her legs took control and put her in a sprint from there, alone.

She was out of the frying pan, but was pursued by two small drones, shooting smaller slugs at her. Her wildest instincts were in charge and she ran without looking backwards. The legs were protesting, but her instincts forced them onwards. A projectile flew right at her, punching straight through the shields with a crashing noise and the force almost put her out of balance, but thankfully she regained instantly.

She realized that she would not outrun the drones – she had to face them. She had left the rifle at the crash zone and had only a hand gun, which she upholstered. If she stopped or slowed down she would make herself an easy target for the drones. The weight increased on her legs and every move became more and more of a challenge. She had to evade her pursuers before her muscles would give in.

A large rock was ahead. She pushed her body further to endure until she reached it with the heart beating heavily like it was trying to push out of the chest and the damn muscles that screamed in pain.

This was her only chance.

Without any hesitation, she grabbed the rock with her empty arm and swung herself down to its backside. The drones did not manage to react and flew by. Ashley now took the shot while they was turned away from her, not wasting the only chance that had been given her. She fired – _bam_! The first drone went down, but before it went crashing into the ground, she hit the second with a just as clean shot as the first one. Both crashed. The drones did not seem to be protected by shields or armor, but had piercing fire and mobility. With her chasers gone, she could finally rest her aching limbs that seemed to refuse to move one more inch. How long had she run? Running with combat armor made any distance significantly longer. She laid her forehead in her resting arms; digging her face down.

The day had started off so sickly normal like any other day the past few months, but within – how long had it been? Hours? It felt like more than hours. The whole morning had been a struggle to survive and her she sat, alone. Everyone else was… dead. The image of the guys, just lying on the ground, not moving a muscle like they were sleeping in absurd positions; the image of Liam's brain splatter over the whole damn place – oh god! The image of Yuda, just telling her to go and thrusting himself out to his death, like he knew that only one could make it out of there alive and draw the fire to save her. He didn't even hesitate, not letting her stop him. No, the images were wrong, illusions. She expected Xue to pick her up, telling her that it was they were going to patrol, as if she couldn't guess to that already.

She looked up. They were not there. The barrack was not there. It was only her, hopelessly screwed with only a matter of time before they would find her and finish her off. She could not hold back the tears that gathered in her eyes. The lips started to jerk. "Oh god" she let out with a shaky voice. "Why is this happening?"

"AAAAHHH!"

She was pulled out from her sorrow by a terrified scream. It sounded like it came from a man, but the way it was a death scream, the one a man would do during a desperate and hopeless struggle for life. It was sounded like it was close-by! She located the source of the scream and sneaked up to another rock. It was right on the other side of it and she peeked over it. Her muscles prepared for flight when she saw two of those strange mechs with flashlight looking heads with a blue light. But she remained when she saw that they were holding a man between them. He was struggling and crying in their grip on his lower and upper body. He tried to punch them, he tried to claw, kick and beg, but their metallic limbs were too strong and did not care about the struggling man. They carried him to some kind of pedestal of metal with three legs. They put him on top of it on his back. They hold on to the flouncing body that desperately tried to get loose, in vain.

She covered her mouth as the jaw dropped as the spine chilled when she saw what came next.

Without any warning, a spike penetrated the man through the body pushing out of the stomach and the clothing. It happened during just a few moments when the spike kept rising up through the body, but when the thicker parts of the spike appeared he was lifted up with it. It stopped with the man raised in the air two meters with the grotesque spike covered in blood on the upper part. Blood flowed down the lower part of the spike slowly in streams. The man's face was visible for Ashley and displayed a ghostly figure as he hung with it upside down. His eyes were wide open as was the mouth that looked like it wanted to scream, but was unable to. Soon blood was seen flowing out of it in tiny streams along the nose. A few limbs were twitching.

She could not bear to see any more of the scene and lowered down do her side of the rock. What the fuck had she seen? She started to retch, feeling the vomit pushing up and the sour discussing liquid get I her mouth. She forced herself under control as she did not want to give away her position to the mechs. She spit out the vomit that reached the mouth, feeling the bitter taste sticking in her mouth. She clenched her fist hardly, resisting hitting the rock with it. She breathed hardly through her nose and shutting her eyes, trying to contain herself from flying into pure rage. Those robotic fucks; she wanted them dead, tear them apart. They had killed those close to her like flies; they destroyed and tormented the colony.

They had to die.

She forced herself to remain cool so that she wouldn't get herself killed by doing something without thought. The mechs had not discovered her, which gave her an element of surprise – unless they at that moment waited for her to pop out. She had watched the mechs and they seemed to make out the majority of the attackers, using assault rifles that fired plasma. She had shot them repeatedly and noticed that their shields were strong and needed repeated fire to break and then they would be penetrated by bullets easy as anything else. She checked her gun – she had seven rounds left and no extra magazine – shit… She had to fire them quickly to retain the surprise and to keep the shields from regenerating. A semi-automatic hand gun would be to slow to fire all rounds before they could respond, but a fully-automatic on the other hand… Her shitty EP-19 pistol had been modified by herself to increase rate of fire in a fully-automatic manner – against protocols of course.

She took some deep breaths before rising up from cover. If she would not risk her life now they had her stuck in cover and would eventually discover her. She stood up, pistol raised. The mechs was about to leave and had equipped themselves with their rifles, leaving the dead man on the spike. She squeezed the trigger, releasing fire. The modifications allowed her to keep the finger on the trigger while the gun changed rounds by its own. The first three hit the mech closest to her, just shrugging the shield. Before it could react, two more rounds followed and the first seemed to penetrate the shield and the second one flew at its head. Blowing it off – it seemed to make out the weak point just like on humans. The second mech noticed her but Ashley switched her aim toward it and released two rounds at it. They shrugged the shield, but the pistol clicked as it was out of ammo.

"Shit!" she hissed, but she lowered it since this was it for her. The mech raised its gun at her. She now saw her end, closing her eyes. She would not be able to jump away, but she could only embrace what was to come. It all happened in less than moments, but it appeared like time had slowed up and she could see the sweet berry trees from her home colony, her father that waved at his girls when he returned to her, the gracing smile of her little sister, the guys in C6, all that would be gone.

_Here we go…_

The mech did not fire before a shot penetrated through the side of its head out on the other side; tearing up tissue and electronics. The mech tilted on its side with a slow dying sound. She opened her eyes, finding her to still remain at between the cliffs and behind the rock. The mech laid dead a few clicks from her next to the one she took out, but she was breathing and was seemingly unhurt.

"I'm alive?" she wondered.

Around the corner, two soldiers appeared, not mechs but humans, males. Judging by their armors, they did not belong to the underfunded colony defenses.

The first one had a more heavy looking armor, not tank-heavy though, and carried an assault rifle of a sort she did not quite recognize other than it was human. The other had a lighter armor and a Raikou pistol. He was probably either a biotic or an engineer. These kinds of soldiers she recognized: they were N7-commandos – at least the heavier one indicated by the sort of his armor. These kinds of people worked in smaller bands and were not deployed as mere grunts to protect civilian interests. Was their presence related to the mech attack?

The heavier man lowered his gun when he saw Ashley. He held up his hand with the palm toward her, a friendly gesture with a light smile in his face. "We're friendlies" he stated from where he stood a few clicks from here where the dead mechs laid.

Not sure how to respond, she nodded to show that she understood.

He and his comrade approached her. "I am Commander Shepard and this is Lieutenant Alenko from SSV Normandy. Are you alright?"

She could swear that she recognized the name of the first man, but could not quite put the finger on it. Anyhow, she shook away the shocks she had earlier. She felt alive and these men certainly looked real to her. "Yeah, thanks. I'm Gunnery Chief Willems of garrison C6. Thanks for coming when you did. I would be dead by now if not, Commander."

"Glad we could help, and you don't have to use titles with me, Willems." He stood in front of her so she could see the face behind the visor of his helmet. He gave the impression of professionalism and authority of an officer, but at the same time he had sharp, blue eyes that somehow made him look… reliable. "You are the first living soul we've seen so far. Do you have any idea what's going on here?"

She took a breath and thought a second, still uncertain over what had happened that morning. "I… I'm not sure, but it started with the radio silence, I guess. Then there was those strange mechs, attacking us on sight." She pointed at the two recently dead ones. "Other than that I don't know. I've been just trying to stay live whole day."

"What about that object entering from the clouds?" asked the lieutenant called Alenko that stood behind Shepard's right.

Just thinking about… whatever it was – made a chill go down her spine. That thing came down moments before her squad was broken. She had only seen it briefly, a hand-like shape descending from red clouds – that came from nowhere.

"Sorry, sir, but I only cought a glimse of it – a hand-shaped black thing, I guess, coming out of the clouds. I only remember that terrible noise." That noise… that fucking roar that did not only nearly bust her ears, but it also kind of got down in her very soul, like it targeted her very inner. It made her pale like a stick, giving her the urge two leg it the opposite direction. "That… thing. I have no flying clue what it was, but it was _not_ from our world."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, like the demons you read about in the religions? The noise it made, it exposed you somehow, made one feel small." She did not know what she was talking about herself. She felt worried that she would embarrass herself in front of them – somehow – especially with the commander –somehow. "Sorry for rambling like this."

"Don't worry, Willems. Take it easy" Shepard assured with an up-held palm. There was something convincing in his voice, made her feel calmer.

"Okay" she confirmed. She took another breath and cleared the previous horrors.

"You told me of your squad?" he asked.

A moment of silence occurred. The question had another meaning to it :_where's the rest of your squad?_ They had noticed that the one she spoke of was obviously not around, were they? She was quite alone. Either she had run off, taking a piss at the best imaginable occasion; or perhaps the truth that they were laying completely dead a few clicks from there while she had run of like a damn coward.

"They…" she started. "They're dead" she simply said. The image of Yuda being mold down by the robotic bastards occurred in her mind.

The commander tilted his head down as thinking. Not replying immediately. "I'm sorry" he stated simply with a lowered and reverent voice. "We lost someone ourselves, Corporal Jenkins, lost to these geth."

"What did you call them?" she disrupted as her curiosity overcame her sorrow when she heard a name to give the enemy.

"Geth" Alenko stated. "They are a synthetic race that overthrew their creators some hundred years ago. They are highly advanced and they seem to fit what little we know about them. But why they are here, we don't know."

Shepard left the question hanging. "Who are you reporting to?"

"The command of C-sector, but it's far away from here; the roads are covered with 'geths' and I won't make it on foot." She found herself pity herself, something she could not remember herself doing, well almost ever. She did not feel like the girl beating up the biggest meathead of basic training or the one proudly present her permission to join the Alliance, but the one falling from the sugar tree and broke the legs on three spots and hopelessly far from home, begging for god or her father to come to her. She hated herself for these feelings, despised it like an embarrassing sister. She had always tried to show the world that she was though, that she was capable of taking the shit the world threw at you without the help of a moron of a man. But she was _screwed_ and she could not ignore this fact.

"Hmm". He turned to Alenko as if to confer, but he did not say anything. They conferred with eye contact only and it appeared that they had the same thought in mind and the lieutenant gave a regarding look, but the commander had the look of dismissing it. "Willems, you know this sector well?"

"I do." Know the location of every square meter rather. Remaining on the same spot for an eternity allowed you to get well familiar with it.

He nodded. "Good, then I want you to guide us to a certain place around here. Due to the circumstances, you are to report to me." He was taking her to under his command? And he did not finch to the name _Willems_? During her yet short career she had been pushed around like a weight, but this man, an N7 took her? Of course he wouldn't know about _Willems_ since he did not seem like a dinosaur, but still.

"Yeah… sure!" she stumbled on her words.

"Okay, we have the maps, but if what you are saying about the roads, we need an alternate path. We need to go to the excavation site, if you know of it."

The excavation site? There had been talking all around Eden Prime about it, but only rumors about the most vivid stuffs like mass destruction weapons, memory banks; hell – even treasures! But that specific area was of limits for most personnel and she had only seen from the outside. But yeah: "I know it."

Shepard shortly told her of their purpose to secure the artifact – whatever it was.

He nodded again. "Let's go then. We have spent more time than needed here." He went the way Ashley had originally come from with the lieutenant after him. Ashley found herself standing, wondering over what had happened over the past few hours, but got a grip of her as the commander looked over his shoulder to see if she was coming and she followed. She had only her pistol with no ammo, but she hoped to find something else along the way.

"You think the artifact is still there, if the geth would be after it?" she heard Alenko asking Shepard.

Shepard looked at him. "I hope so, Alenko. I really hope so."

…

The place was a mess. Structures that had been raised around the site showed signs of projectile holes all over them and but worse were the amount of bodies lying on the ground. It looked like the small amount of security had been trying to hold their ground in the center of the site, but was surrounded judging by the not so big amount of geth lying around the yard. They did not see many dead civilians but the few that were was scattered around the buildings. It did not look as if they had been forcing the gates open; could they have been setting their troops inside via drop-ships? There were sickly few signs of combat like the defense had been taken completely by surprise.

Shepard hunkered down, letting a frustrated sigh out. According to the codex, the artifact, a tall-formed object believed to serve as some kind of data base, was meant to stand on the platform next to him, only there was nothing there. It was not there.

Kaiden looked around, trying to make something out of the surroundings. Ashley found a rifle next to its previous owner. The shitty standard EG-12-2 without the modifications she had made on her own, but it had to do,

"What now?" Shepard grumbled to himself. He had failed his task, one easy task to get to one point, kill anything in your way and you win. But again: "What now?" He was thankful that the others did not point out the obvious that the artifact was gone.

_You just have to screw things up with your sense for chivalry, don't you?_

No… No, no, no… This was different. She was alive, was she not? This is not like before. She was alive and would be dead by now if he would not bring her along. But he had failed, had he not?

He put his palm on his face.

He had screwed up. He had failed his task and Nihlus would be disapproving of him, deny him Spectre post and then the government would let him pay the penalty, probably by plain execution, or working his spine of as slave.

"What now?" Alenko asked. Shepard took a breath no resist the urge to fly up and shout in the lieutenant's face to shut up. Instead he calmly stood up and slowly shook his head. "I don't know, Alenko. I don't know." Shepard then remembered what people had told him that Shepard did not give up until it was over. That he was the last to surrender to the situation. He was not sure over his own psyche functions, but he had a responsibility to try as far as he can. "But I'm not going to sit around here when the damn thing is out there." His desperation was replaced with determination. If it was not there: he would hunt down each geth on surface to find it, regardless what they were doing there in the first place.

A wonder of the where about of Nihlus passed Shepard's mind. Was he not meant to be here?

"Commander!" the chief Shouted, drawing the attention of both officers, before he could start to dwell on it.

"The gate over there is opened, but not with force." Shepard thought of Willems's notice and saw that she was correct. Unlike the other gate they had forced open, this one was naturally opened, as if being from the inside, like after an attack within the walls… "I was thinking that they may have transported it through it somewhere else, or something."

Shepard's frown rose up. If the attackers were still on Eden Prime and were transporting the artifact to another location within the colony. That meant that they could catch up with them. This was at least their best bet!

He went over to the chief's side and put his hand on her shoulder. "Great work, Willems!" Then his legs guided him toward the direction of potential trails in a run. Kaiden, unprepared for his command's sudden determination set momentarily after him. They did not see the expression Ashley had on her face: a wide smile she got as someone praised what she had done, actually given the chance of proving herself. She hurried up after Shepard immediately.

Shepard saw the woods passing by, focused on making up with some trails before they got cold. They encountered several dead geth in groups with only few hundred meters between them. Shepard did not know what that mean, but he decided to follow the trail of dead geth. He was no sure that they were connected to the artifact, but it was a decision made by his instincts, to follow the path of destruction.

He could sense that the artifact was on the other end of the path, and maybe the one responsible for this havoc. He would keep his promise to find the bastards responsible for this.

OOO

_**Pew… This was a tough chapter to write! Writing dialogues is HARD, friend, but here it is! I am aware that this shit contains more than one error and maybe I'll fix it in near future, but for future improvement of writing: put any of your opinions (or whatever you fell like) in a review or a PM. Next chapter may not be done during next couple of weeks, but I'll try my best to get it done!**_

_**Until next time!**_


	5. 5 - the Artifact

5

The Artifact

As the Geth decreased in numbers, they became less efficient in combat. One of few things Nihlus knew about geth was that they were stronger in larger numbers, as they seemed to have the ability to unify with each other into a central intelligence, creating a stronger force. They had been a challenge for him, but eventually the last fell with an electronic dying sound. They seemed to be cleared out.

The general knowledge of their nature was small as they were complex and hard to observe, therefore the council had decided to isolate them instead. Nihlus cursed the council, for their ignorance over such a threat. The geth had shown signs that they preferred to remain isolated with no interaction with organic life since they overthrew the quarians 300 years ago, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. He was going to share his opinion regarding the geth once more with the council. Perhaps this attack would open their ignorant eyes.

Fools…

They were there for the same reason as he, the artifact. He arrived to the excavation site when they were taking it. They were in a huge number so he was unable to intervene. They had dispatched smaller groups when they transported it away from there to slow his progress. He had never fought geth before, but they shared the same basics like any other foe: if you shot them, they died. Difference was that they had drones to flank one's position and had stronger shields. One thing was out of his experience however: the humanoid creatures that somehow had been modified from humans. The disfigured creatures had come to life from their impaled position and attacked him with their bare limbs as clubs. The geth had turned the humans to some mindless husk that killed the unaffected ones. The spikes seemed to be part of a completely alien technology – a great reason for the council to react to the geth.

He moved from cover to cover swiftly, despite that there were no visible enemies, but he had not come this far to be taken down by a hidden foe. During his twenty years as a Spectre he had learned much more than he would have if he stayed in the military. In the military one was taught to fight in a unit, but in the Spectre force he had to rely on himself. He had been taught to fight as one unit, excluding the weaknesses of one fighting alone. He could never rely on anyone but him having his back.

He was at a station for a Maglev-track where creates were stacked around the place. Some creates contained living animals, making noises that were unfamiliar to Nihlus. Some contained two-legged birds – looked to fat two fly; and others contained four legged beings with no fur or plates, just naked skin. This colony served as a food producer and this were most likely supplies to other parts of humanity. From what he had heard, the humans had ruined their home world, Earth that was far from opulent for vegetation and other animals.

He looked around the corner past some crates with the naked animals that gave away an absurd symphony of gnarling and screeching sounds.

He saw someone! He pulled back his head.

Where the corridor ended with the platform to the tracks a figure stood, but it was not a geth, nor human. Judging by the back-positioned shins and the crown on its head it was a turian, a male. What was he doing here and why did he not belong to the others that had fallen to the geth? He had his back pointed at him, seemingly unaware of his presence. He was standing there, casually, as if the geth attack did not seem to bother him, and had no visible weapons except for a holstered side arm.

He turned out of cover, and approached the man slowly with his shotgun raised against him. Who were he and what was he doing here? He did not seem to be threatening, but after what Nihlus had seen he could not take any chances. He was even prepared to shoot the man just to avoid any surprises. There was something strange with the turian he approached: he seemed thicker than other of his kind in a gray armor with no helmet; but more particular was the left arm that was not the usually small arm of a turian, but a thick long arm that was bigger than the other one. It did not look natural but artificial, like the body of the geth with an unknown gray tissue. The neck of him showed some explants leading down the collar. The skin of the neck looked gray and pale.

Who was this turian? Nihlus instincts tingled, as if alarming him for danger. He ceased the approach, preparing to fire or duck into cover, just five meter from the turian. Surely he should have noticed Nihlus by now?

He was about to call out to him, when he turned toward Nihlus. He lowered the gun and dropped the jaw in pure disbelief. Explants that looked like tubes weaved around the torso, and the face had pale gray face plates. The eyes were pale blue, but with no sclera.

But none of this was the reason for his surprise, for except for the slightly disfigured appearance of a turian, Nihlus recognized him.

"Saren?" he let out.

He looked back at Nihlus with the blue eyes, still in a relaxed position.

"Hello, Nihlus."

oOo

"What the hell was that?!" Ashley burst out.

The scene was once again calm the way it was when they arrived. The – whatever they were – were dead, at least not moving.

Shepard and Alenko had seen the grotesque spikes before they saved chief Willems, and the corpses that were impaled were still fresh, but when they made attempts to get them down from there, they would simply not get loose, like the spike was holding on to it. They could not tip over the spike either so they decided to simply let them be for the moment. But the scenery had been a bizarrely more different after they passed the excavation site.

When they entered the small area of decimated houses they were in by now, around six of the spikes had been arranged around the place. The place had been completely dead with only the large spikes remaining intact. The group was not sure what to believe when they were greeted by the sight of the entities impaled on top of the spikes. They saw humanoid beings up there, but they did not look human, not directly. The beings were dark gray skinned with a small meagre body in seemingly over-sized clothes, as if they had shrink with them on. They hanged with their backs bent back-wards with the feet and hands seeking the ground with the edge of the spike pointing out of the stomach. Their faces send chills sending down Shepard's entire body when he saw their faces. They were as dark as the rest of the skin, but they had no facial features of a normal human, except for empty eyes that were as clear as crystals and a hanging mouth, just as empty with no teeth or tongue – just a dark hole. No other feature: no nose; no ears; no hair. They looked exactly the same with only sloppy clothes that differed.

The only real Shepard was able to relate the sight was the one he had saw when HCP had publicly impaled rebels on Terra Nova to intimidate disobedient colonists. But what he saw here did not even look human…

Shepard looked at one of them. It looked dead, but somehow he had the feeling that it was looking at him with its empty eyes. Suddenly it had been starting to move in its impaled position! They had all reacted to the sudden change, but soon it let out a hoarse gargling and the slow moves changed to jerking with its limbs. The others had starting to do so to and then they started to roar and scream with hoarse noises. Shepard was unable to believe what he saw, but it got worse. A grinding metallic screech occurred from the spikes and they were unfolding down with the beings coming down. The spike left the body and the fighting bodies fell to the ground, still fighting and screaming. They soon got up and locked their attention toward the group and rushed at them with arms raised. Shepard was still not reacting: the scenery was nightmare-like – such that only occurred in movies. The six of them rushed at Alenko, bringing him to the ground under them. They gathered around him, hammering at him with their arms. Shepard and Willems reacted simultaneously and fired at the beings with their rifles – single fire to not hit the lieutenant. They did not go down at first and when the bullets hit them, they did not seem to care, but after moments of fire their bodies yielded and keeled around Kaiden.

Silence – with exception for bangs in the distance – fell again.

Shepard and Ashley rushed to help Kaiden. He was alright but the things had cracked his visor.

"Shit! Were those things human?"

Kaiden shook his head. "I don't know, maybe. Were they… altered, or something – anything to do with the spikes?"

Shepard shook his head to. "I've never seen anything like this."

Kaiden stretched his body, but he ceased the move with a groan as pain occurred in his chest.

"You okay, LT?" Ashley asked.

He nodded. "I'm fine. Just a cracked rib maybe – nothing to really worry about." He turned to Shepard. "Commander, we are bumping on to something completely out of the normal around every corner. We-"

"We have come too far to return now. The artifact is our main objective and perhaps the main reason of this attack. We can't let it go."

Kaiden understood Shepard, besides, they were stranded. He nodded.

Shepard noted that there were more of these human-like creatures lying on the ground over the ones they had killed. It could mean that Nihlus or anybody else had been there, following the artifact like they did. Before taking the lead further ahead, Shepard gave a last look at the creatures.

What had happened to them?

o.O.o

"You… you died…" Nihlus had never been an uncertain person; he could not. As a Spectre one did not afford to be uncertain. One moment of uncertainty would only benefit your opponent, which one did not afford considering the limited resources at hand.

But this could simply not be true…

"I did" he casually answered, as if it did not bother him. As if the fact that he disappeared in geth territory, for _five years_, did not seem abnormal at all. He looked sick, unnatural, but Nihlus could not mistake on that face, not that tone of voice, not the way he spoke like he always had things under control. He recognized the man he had as a partner, a friend, the man who had his back more than anyone else, for nearly fifteen years.

"Then why are you here, after all this time. Why are you _alive_?"

He made a snort, to indicate slight amusement. "Tell me, Nihlus. Why are you still with the Spectres? –serving as errand boy for a corrupt council?"

Nihlus shook his head. Was he dreaming? No, this could not be a dream: he felt the smell of burning in his nostrils; far too real to be unreal. But seeing Saren, in the way he looked, it could not be real either. "If you died, why are you alive?" he repeated his previous question.

"Why _wouldn't_ I be? I died and the man you saw before, the man that made you the one you are now, are no longer. I am new, living for another purpose, one greater then helping corrupt politicians ensuring their continued mandate, which you now follow blindly."

Nihlus stared at Saren's left arm. It was geth, but why was it on Saren? He felt the urge to shoot the turian who gave him away to be his friend, but he could not understand it, like an instinct that told you to do things beyond his understanding. "How… What are you talking about? Why the in the hells are there geth here of all places in the damn galaxy?" His own disability to understand the scene annoyed him.

Saren walked toward him. Nihlus's urge to draw his gun and drop a magazine on the approaching turian increased. A part of him was… feared, for unexplained reasons.

"I told you; I taught you from the very moment when you were put under my evaluation, that the slightest moment of doubt will kill you and fail your very purpose." He put his 'normal' hand on Nihlus's shoulder as he reached his side. He did not look at him as he stood on Nihlus's side but forward. Nihlus noticed the eyes of his former partner. They were completely pale blue, like glass and lacked the other features of a turian eye, just, blue.

"What… Who are you? What purpose?"

Saren pated his shoulder and walked behind him. Nihlus did not turn around to him.

"A purpose that has always been obvious for this galaxy we live in." Saren stopped. "A purpose we do not know of but that forms our very existence." He unholstered the gun and raised it against Nihlus. His eyes were not pale blue, but had a strong blue light coming from them. Nihlus every inner instinct alarmed him about his lethal situation.

But it was too late…

"A purpose that will not have you to prevent it."

o.O.o

A shot was heard. It was louder as if being closer by and sounded like it was from a high-caliber rail-gun. Shepard believed that it came from the maglev-station down below the path that went downward from their position. Willems and Alenko noticed as well and stopped, preparing for enemies rushing toward them. They did not come though. Shepard saw no movement down there and the fire, which differed from the geth's plasma weapons in sound, was not followed and nothing seemed to happen.

They cautiously descended toward the station.

They walked through the passages of crates and boxes containing mostly animals – dead or living. They contained pigs and hens, species brought from Earth to less inhabitable locations that were used to feed people elsewhere that could not eat the local animals. No other signs of life were visable in the whole station. A few dead geth were there, but no living or dead humans. It was

"Commander!" Alenko shouted. They found a corpse of a turian – all other corpses had been human or scrap from geth. Alex cursed as he recognized the corpse to be Nihlus! He and Alenko rushed toward him where the corridor ended to the platform of the tracks. Willems remained confused over the turian.

He lay on his stomach, revealing a gaping wound in his neck bellow his crown. He showed no signs of being alive while lying in his own pool of blue blood that the men stood on their knees in. Shepard noticed that the body was straight, not in combat position, as if had standing straight still. None of them were medically skilled, especially not in turian biology, but understood well that a wound of that nature surely would kill one regardless of specie.

"Is that Nihlus?" Willems asked. Alenko had told her about their mission and about Nihlus.

"Yeah" Shepard replied. He covered his mouth with his unbloodied gauntlet. "Fuck…" He had hoped that finding Nihlus would give them clarity over the situation and fix the problems that they stood knee-deep in, but all of that faded away with the dead turian. He let out a heavy sigh.

A moment of silence followed. Then Ashley heard a sound: a low sound of something moving against something rough. "Commander" she called. Shepard looked up with an expression that indicated that he was annoyed, with a look that wondered what she was going to bother him with. She pointed at where the noise came from, a large crate that where covered with a tarpaulin. Shepard noticed the sound too amongst the grunting from the swine. There also came a low bam from there. He rose from the small puddle with his rifle. He walked to Willems and indicated to approach the crate. He nodded to Willems to uncover the tarpaulin while he and Alenko stood by, ready to shoot. With a rap she pulled away the tissue.

"Don't kill me!" a voice cried. Inside the crate were bags and boxes containing meat and on top of them was a man lying, with his arms and legs in a position of someone terrified expecting someone to hit him.

"What the…" Ashley was actually surprised to see a human being or something not trying to kill her. "Get out of there" she commanded and pointed down her gun.

The man opened his eyes and looked at her, as if to confirm that she was of no danger, and put down his arms. "Okay… okay…"

He rose up and looked at the people to ensure that they were safe. He held up his hands.

"We are not going to hurt you." Shepard said. He and Alenko lowered their guns.

The man with a knit hat nodded and climbed out of the crate and slowly lowered his hands. "You are soldiers then?"

"We are: I'm Alex Shepard, commander in the alliance fleet." He touched his chest with his hand. "Who are you and what were you doing in that crate?"

"I'm Pavel." His voice was slightly shaky. "I work here at the station, managing cargo and things – you know. And then those – mechs, I think? – came, all over the place. So I hid in here."

"Are there any others around here?" Alenko asked.

Pavel shrugged. "I don't know – maybe? When things started to explode, things got crazy: people ran around like they were head less chickens or tried to run away from here. I didn't see anything from where I was. I don't know how long I hid – hours at least. I was about to get out here when I heard aliens – turians I believe."

"Wait, there were more than one?"

Pavel nodded. "It was that one over there" he pointed at the corpse of Nihlus. "He talked to another turian – Saren, I believe he called him. They seemed to know each other."

"No one else?"

"Just them. They had talked strange and I did not understand what they talked about, but it all ended when the 'Saren' guy shot 'Nihlus' – his name was?"

"He shot him?"

Pavel pointed at his own head with a finger. "Straight in the head when he was not looking. He then disappeared."

Shepard glared back at Nihlus. The whole situation had been fucked up as it was, but Nihlus being shot, by another _turian_, made the set. The situation had escalated to his neck and questions arrived at large while no questions had yet been solved.

"You saw where he went?"

"I stayed here until you guys showed up, but it sounded like he took the train" he pointed. "To the B-station, I believe."

Shepard nodded. He thought of the whole situation as being completely bizarre: a test run had turned into a grab and run mission which in its own turn changed to a goose chase, and with Nihlus gone he had now full responsibility for the fuck-ups. _Great!_ This Saren, who was he and why did he shoot Nihlus? Or more relevant: did he have anything to do with this attack and the artifact?

"Our best bet is to follow him then." They went to the tracks with Pavel following behind. Shepard let out another sigh as he saw no train on the track, just clean track in both directions. Of course the turian would not let them follow him so easily.

"How long are there to the B-station?"

"I don't know, ten kilometers or something?"

"Great…"

"But we do have a trolley in the station house. You could take that one, I guess?"

o.O.o

The geth were setting the charges over the station, enough to eradicate everything within a radius of 30 kilometers. Every human, machine, plant, everything would die. They could not leave signs of their presence. They also had to destroy the beacon, the artifact the primitive humans had been unable to comprehend and been so reckless with. They would not have been able to see the value of it if it had been shown to their faces. They only needed it once, after that all would be in the right order; every wrong corrected. But they had to act cautiously if they were to achieve their goals. They did not afford to fail.

The geth worked industriously, loyal to the true masters of the galaxy, the ones responsible for their very existence. Sovereign had chosen its allies well. The foolish quarians had created a force more powerful than any of the organic species of the galaxy. They would earn their place under the reapers. Nihlus did not. The man, that once had been a friend under a different time, was tainted by lies and ignorance that Saren had been cleansed of. The voices had been cleared and now one voice remained; the true one.

The prothean beacon was enlightened, something the primitives would not have been able to do. The structure, tall like two turians standing on each other's shoulders, illuminated a sea green light that weaved around its shape like glowing veins. A spotlight was pointed upwards as it tried to find others of its kind and establish to a long gone communications network. However, the essential information was already inside the beacon's database, hidden from the world since the fall of its creators.

He approached it. It lightened up by his presence and picked him up – jerked him off the ground in the air. The information was shared.

The information that would set everything right again.

o.O.o

"What…" Commander Shepard let out with a jaw that slacked at the sight of the sky up ahead. They all were astonished from their position in the small trolley that had been given by Pavel that kept hiding where they found him. In the distance ahead, a black craft elevated up in the sky. It was a ship of some kind, but nothing any of them had ever seen. It was far away, but they could make out certain details out of it: its body was in black metal and consisted of a long body that led down where it ended with tentacle looking limbs. I remained Ashley of the under-water beings on Earth her sister Beatrix had told her about – octopus was it?

It jumped upward though, imminently disappearing out of their sight.

"That was the thing I saw" she said. The thing – was it a demon? If such things existed, this was the closest thing she would relate it to.

"It could be. I'm not sure about what these geth, but yeah – could be." Ashley had only been with the commander for a few hours, but she could see that he, just like anyone else, had uncertain moments where little made sense or moments when world was a bitch, but he seemed to recover quickly from such moments like a dog that shook away water from its fur and kept going.

"But that's irrelevant. This artifact may still be at the coming station and you should make ready."

_Just like that!_

The trolley started to slow down, indicating that they were reaching their destination. They picked up their rifles and checked the ammunition. The station appeared in the distance.

The journey came to an end abruptly and almost made the team fall over in the trolley.

This station was bigger and had two second levels over the one they arrived to with a bridge connecting the levels above. They saw geth on the platform that looked at them for a moment, as almost surprised to see them, but before they could react, Ashley and the other two shot them down. They jumped off the trolley whose gas driven engine almost tenderized Ashley's but on the shaky ride. They quickly overviewed the rest of the platform, but saw no more geth.

Ashley went over to the four geth they had killed and saw that they surrounded a big cylinder with strange details of wires and tubes weaving over them. She could only imagine what it was: a gas container, some mechanical stuff, a bomb- _wait… a bomb! It was a fucking BOMB!_

"Guys!" she screamed. The two men came to her, wondering what was going on, until they saw the potential bomb. The lieutenant scanned it and confirmed that it held physical activity in form of neutrons. He explained that the ratings told that it would be able to decimate an entire town, but if it would be connected to others of the same kind, the effect could be exponentially increased to a devastating effect.

"The whole colony here would be annihilated, including all survivors, right?" Shepard asked.

Alenko nodded.

"Shit…" he mumbled. She saw as he seemed to lose himself in his thoughts, eyes closed. He returned moment later though. "Can you disable them?"

The bombs were geth technology – alien to Alenko – but there seemed to be another component attached to the bomb. It was a timer most likely and if they disconnected them from the bombs, they would be paused until they could be dealt with later.

Shepard agreed to this and ordered him to attempt to disable the timer.

Ashley turned away and peered over the station. It was bigger than the C-station with two floors and it was connected to the surface space station small distance from there where all refined products would go after the mill or slaughterhouse to be sent out to trade. She would often pass by it as she visited her home once a few months.

Gosh, the day kept getting more fucked up as it progressed. They were attacked by unknown robots with obscured technology, special ops marines had turned up as well as a Citadel SPECTRE, and now _this_? – blowing up the colony on top of it all? A memory passed up in mind: more than once she and the rest of the garrison in C6 had dreamt of some… action – just something that differed from the day before and the other day before that and so on. Well… _look around!_ _Here was the great adventure that they had dreamt about! Wasn't it exciting? Your friends lay dead after being picked off like flies, but you got what you wanted didn't ya?_ No… She had to focus. She did not have to blame anyone for anything, not now, not when things were getting dire.

They had to save the Eden Prime, whatever was left of it, it had to be saved. She couldn't let down the officers, not now.

Her eyes caught movement on the upper platform on the other side. There were geth gathering at the edge! They held up guns and a sharp red shine blinded her eyes. She turned instantly and rushed to the officers. The lieutenant worked on the bomb, but the commander met her with a wondering look, before his face indicated that he saw what Ashley had seen.

"Get down!" she screamed and waved with her hand, but suddenly the officers disappeared from her sight as well as everything else.

A moment of darkness followed, but when she saw light again, she found herself lying on the cement floor of the platform on the stomach. Sounds of shots being fired surrounded her and when she looked up while supporting herself on her elbows, she saw the men behind cover, responding fire that punched hole in the crates with crashing and shattering sounds that sent dust flying. The commander seemed to notice her and said something to the lieutenant.

_What happened?_

The commander supported his elbows on the crate which he had as cover and sprayed a series of shots at the geth while the lieutenant leaped out of cover and ducked as he was running toward her. He put his arms around her chest, forced her on her back and quickly dragged her in behind cover of the nearest crate. He started examining her with the onmi tool on his hand over Ashley's body. She did not understand what had happened and supported her body on her elbows as she pushed herself up from the ground. It felt a bit heavy, but she got up so she stood on her knees. Sounds of fire were still heard. As she got up, the lieutenant's thick black eye brows raised in surprise to her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You were hit by a sniper and were sent to the ground" he replied. "They use heavy rounds, but you seem to have survived, somehow…" he started examining her with his dark brown eyes over her, as to verify that she actually was alive. "Look at this…" He pointed at her left side where a tear was visible in her armor, revealing a slightly torn fabric padding inside.

"Damn…" she quietly expressed as she viewed her left. She had ben millimeters gone from being lost…

"Are you feeling alright?" Alenko asked, trying to over-voice the gun fire.

She nodded – she could not feel any pain, so she was intact. She was nothing but a little shocked by the sudden event. She glanced over to the commander that fought the mechs, or the 'geths', by himself – looking out of cover and firing with his rifle before the respond fire forced him to duck down again as the fire penetrated his seemingly powerful kinetic barriers.

"You think you can fight?" he asked.

She could, but her rifle remained where the lieutenant had dragged her from. He solved it by raising his hand and blue aura seemed to surround it and the rifle started to vibrate, before starting to slowly glide across the gap between them. Ashley widened her eyes in wonder while spectating. She knew of biotics, beings with ability to control dark matter with their nervous system, but she had not seen any with her own eyes. Biotic implants were a rare sight in her social class as it was expensive and time consuming to alter the nervous system at a human and were mostly used in higher military divisions. She nodded as thanks when the rifle reached her and she picked it up.

They nodded in agreement at each other before popping out of cover to assist the commander.

o.O.o

Shepard hunkered and let out a long and heavy sigh as Alenko confirmed that the last bomb had its timer removed – the colony was safe, for the moment until the bombs had been neutralized. Disable the devices had been everything but easy as the bombs were alien and the lieutenant had needed time to figure out how to not blow them off in forehand. This meanwhile the geth had a hold of the station. Their numbers were not great, but they had snipers and some other kind of robot that seemed to deploy barriers and bolster the shields of the snipers. They had the upper hand in a range-combat, but they had been outmatched as the group had made it to their position and forced to close-range-combat. They had disabled around five bombs and there appeared to be no more, and with no more geth they could finally breath out.

"I must say, Chief" the commander expressed with his sky-blue eyes looking at her with a friendly and appealing smile. "That you handled yourself good there."

"Thanks…" she said, not figuring out something else to say. During her career she had always had higher demands on her than others, partially for her sex and partially for her surname. During runs in the obstacle course in recruit camp, her instructor Ngo had always wanted to see her fail. He had discouraged her at every possibility, hating to have a woman under his command. He had mocked her alongside the other meat-heads in that company and never given her credit for the success from her way, but never hesitated to punish her for failures. Her mother had hated Ashley for not fulfilling "a woman's duties" and regarded her as a failure amongst her daughters and they had not spoken in ages. She was admittedly skilled in combat as she had always needed to prestige harder than others to be given the slightest hint of approval.

This commander on the other hand, was different.

"You're not the regular kind of garrison fighter I've seen. You've got some potential that don't belong in a place such as this." His voice mirrored her thoughts. For long she had been pushed around by people that wanted to keep her down, and she hated them for it, so _fucking_ much.

She could not think of an answer to him. She could just thank him for the compliments, but what if he reacted negatively? She rarely had problems speaking her mind, but this commander was different in an unexplainable way. What if he was Ngo with a mask, waiting for her to screw up?

"What about the artifact?" Alenko interrupted, disrupting the small moment of success. Even if they had saved the survivors of Eden Prime – while the colony itself would hardly recover – but the main objective was the artifact and that was what the authority would judge them for.

Shepard raised his hand to his face and released air between his fingers. "I don't know, LT. Probably gone from this planet, given the time the robots took from us here and then it's probably out of our reach." So they had failed? Ashley would probably be transferred to another shithole in the galaxy, perhaps with a smaller promotion given that she had accomplished her principal objective to protect the colony, but the officer's objective was gone. The lieutenant seemed to acknowledge this and sat down heavy on a wagon and sighed. The commander on the other hand seemed surprisingly content given the circumstances.

"But we did save a whole lot of people today and I'd say that matter. You did good here today, both of you."

Alenko nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right, but what will happen now?"

He folded out his hands with his rifle lying on the floor. "I don't know… Waiting? Alliance aid should arrive eventually, until then we can find a way to the main colony and see-"

"Wait" the lieutenant interrupted with a raised hand after he raised his head as if he saw something behind Ashley and the commander. "Look there." He pointed to where the wall of the station building had an opening around 100 meter behind Ashley. She and Shepard turned their heads to see it and saw that the outside was beyond that opening, but it displayed a strange light in form of a spotlight leading vertically right outside in a sea-green light.

"Let's check it out" Shepard called and stood up and made it toward the light with Ashley and Alenko following.

They walked outside and came to a balcony with a stair that led down alongside the left wall down to a yard. Down there the team saw it, or at least thought they saw, the artifact. It was a two-man high object standing there with a green light that came from what looked like veins all over its skin. The same light seemed to be launched up toward the sky from it. The crew descended down to it.

They stood a few ten meters away from it.

"This would be it, I guess. Either that or some other strange thing the geth have."

Ashley had never been given access to the excavation site after they closed it off, but she had seen it in the very beginning when they found it. It did not light the way it did now and gave away to be another dusty old relic. But this thing had certain… awe to it as it stood there in solitude in the yard, overviewing the forests and hills that made out the landscape of Eden Prime.

"_Commander, lieutenant, anyone? Dammit… Alex?"_ the radio on the officers sounded, revealing another man's voice. The commander reacted immediately by moving up his hand to his helmet to respond the call.

"Captain!" he greeted. The communication transmissions seemed to work again.

"_Shepard, it's good to hear you. Are you and your team alright? We picked up unknown spacecraft passing through the atmosphere."_

"We lost Jenkins and Nihlus…"

A moment of silence followed from the other end._ "Fuck" _Another silence came._ "And the artifact?"_ The voice was not hopeful.

"We found it, sir and it's secured. The attackers tried to detonate bombs, destroying the artifact as well as the colony."

"_What? Dammit, alright. Was the place secured?_"

Shepard looked around. They had faced resistance on the station, but not enough to bring down a spacecraft. The geth had probably not expected the bombs to be disarmed. "It's all clear for extraction."

"_Alright, we're coming to you shortly. Good work commander."_

The transmission ended.

Ashley walked closer to the artifact as the two officers behind her consulted with each other. She looked at it while she drew closer. It was amongst the other things she had seen today something alien that looked like nothing she had seen before. At first look it was merely an old structure that shined for one reason or another, but when you looked closer the weaving veins of light somehow looked… living. The light stretched upwards endlessly and the beam it was generating was like pouring water in a sea-green tone. It was marvelous in an unexplainable way an Ashley felt drawn to it as she came closer.

But then, she could feel a light force, like… the artifact was _literally_ _drawing_ her to it!

The artifact gave away a pulse in the sea-green color in an energy wave and she could feel the light pull that drew her escalate to a yanking that forced her toward it. She helplessly resisted and flouted with her feet and waved with her arms, but she could not resist the force that kept pulling. So much happened in matters of seconds and she had no cohesive thoughts, only feeling of great fear and a desire to get loose from the captive situation.

Shepard now became aware when he saw Ashley being pulled by the mysterious force toward the now abnormally behaving artifact. All this happened so quickly and when he saw it over the shoulder of his companion, he wasted no time to come to the chief's rescue when he pushed his way around the lieutenant that had not reacted yet. He ran over to Ashley that struggled to be getting loose. He took a grip of her waist from behind, but despite him yanking to get her loose, she was still forced toward the artifact.

"Dammit!" she heard him shout it her ear, but it was muffled as she was losing hearing.

Suddenly she felt an even greater force, but from the opposite direction and she could feel herself falling to the ground on her side. She felt her senses slowly come back and the ringing in the eras and the white clouds in the eyes dispersed. She then saw the commander, in front of the artifact. _He was lifted up in the air, a meter!_ His limbs looked paly pulled out from each direction from the body, leaving the owner helplessly stuck.

"Commander!" she yelled, starting to rise up. She had to help him! But before she could get up on her feet, she was grabbed from behind and prevented to leap to the artifact and the commander.

"Don't!" the lieutenant called and held her down. She tried to get loose with no success.

She watched painfully as the commander's stiff body shook and jerked and the fact that no crying of pain somehow made it even worse. She wanted to help him, despite the dangers. The few seconds seemed to last forever, but then the artifacts exuding light became more intense and the vein's light formed into one bon that was blinding.

The light forced Ashley to cover her eyes and then, with a hollow bang and such an intense force that put Ashley and the lieutenant on their backs-

The artifact exploded.

:::0:::

_**A/N**_

_**Fuck author's notes! Let's just get on with it!**_


End file.
